Mt. Antero

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 3/5/2017, By: RyGuy
Info: There is now a trench from the road all the way to the first ridge that you can take up the west slopes at 12,000. Above 12,000, it's mostly patchy and wind-blown snow with dry rocks and tundra until Pt 13,800. From there to the summit ridge, it's fairly solid snow along the ridge until you reach the upper 200 feet of Antero, which is mostly wind scoured. Floatation highly recommended. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 2/26/2017, By: Eli Boardman
Info: The road is packed and easy walking to the major creek crossing / road junction around 11k. The one exception is a drifted place on the road that is easy walking but a little tricky with a sled.

The next part of the road was not packed; I broke a snowshoe trail to the west slopes on Antero, and later in the day some skiers followed my track and apparently continued farther up the basin. The west slopes are wind scoured and fairly easy going.

The south ridge from the 13,800 ft. point consists of two distinct segments. The first part offers occasional protection from the wind, and a boot track traverses through the east-side drifts below the gendarmes. The upper part of the ridge is easy walking but fully exposed to the wind--when I was there, it was impossible to move forward during gusts.

The route would be much easier on a day with less wind. Snowshoes recommended between 11k and 11.7k; microspikes helpful above treeline. I used poles and carried an ice axe which I never used. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 1/27/2017, By: Furthermore
Info: A lone snowshoer recently broke a pretty good trench for the first 1.2 miles. After 1.2 miles, let me tell you folks, I built a fabulous trench. It's absolutely fantastic. The best part is, I didn't have to have Mexico pay for. I paid for it by all those lousy hours spent on the StairMaster earlier this week.

Once out of treeline, I took the standard rib to gain the upper shoulder. The snow near the towers on the upper ridge was fairly soft and somewhat energy consuming.

Please poach this trench and make Mt. Antero great again. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 1/2/2017, By: awpalmer27
Info: A friend and I climbed Antero via the West Slopes. We made this a 2 day trip. We skied in to Bachelor's Gulch on 12/31/16 and camped. Summited and went all the way out on New Year's Day. The conditions were very pleasant up until tree line. Past tree line, high winds made it a very frigid climb.

We parked at the 2WD trailhead. This is as far as you can get in winter. Snow coverage on the 3 mile ski from the trailhead to Bachelor's Gulch was good. We didn't hit any bare patches. We used a gear sled on the ski in. It's steep, but still fairly easy to use a sled since this portion is a summer 4wd road.

On day 2, we choose to leave our skis in camp and start with snowshoes. We also left our avy gear in camp. There wasn't enough snow above tree line for us to be concerned with avalanches. We used snowshoes from our Bachelor Gulch campsite to 13,000 feet. Used boots from 13,000 feet to the summit. There are some patches of snow above 13,000 feet, but its mostly bare and boots are fine for this section. We were happy with all of these transportation choices.

Remember to budget extra time for your winter climb. I tend to forget how slow you move in winter compared to summer. The conditions had us moving at 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 10/21/2016, By: eichsttl
Info: I climbed Antero via the West slope on 10-20-2016. I drove up FS Road 277 for 3 miles to an elevation of 10,850 feet. I drove my stock 4 door Jeep Wrangler and had no problems but the road is extremely rough and rocky. It took me 30 minutes to drive the 3 miles up and 30 minutes again to get down. I stopped at the creek crossing but I could have easily drived another 1.5 miles to 12,000 feet. That last 1.5 miles is probably in better shape than the first 3 miles. The down tree mentioned in the 10-17-2016 post has been removed from the road. There is some ice on the road in both the first 3 miles and the next 1.5 miles. The standard route from 10,850 feet to the summit is almost totally snow and ice free. I did not have any need for micro spikes. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 10/20/2016, By: wildsidesky
Info: Pretty dry today. Started from the very bottom. Some patches of snow and ice on the road up to the Baldwin Gulch turnoff. Upper-difficulties completely dry. Get it while it's good! 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 10/17/2016, By: KelanAnzures
Info: We took the standard route up. A few small patches of snow on the ridge between pt. 13,800 and the summit, but nothing of concern. Wind was howling and didn't see anyone else on the mountain all day.

A few notes on the road: in the morning we drove our Stock Subaru outback up to about 11,500, but we easily could have gotten it to 13,100 if desired. Coming back down later in the day a tree had fallen across the road. This was a learning lesson to throw a shovel or other tool in the back of the car. We were able to extract rocks, trim braches, and dig down enough to just squeak under it. I wouldn't be surprised if it is moved soon, but be aware of it being a possibility if you are heading up there anytime soon. It was down about a half mile before the stream crossing at ~10,800. 

Route: East Ridge via Raspberry Gulch
Posted On: 10/14/2016, By: chicagostylehotdog
Info: Hiked the East Ridge via Raspberry Gulch. Hike was mostly dry with some snow between the rocks. No traction needed.

Not sure exactly where the standard route is, but I took some pictures to share. Refer to the imgur album linked below. It appears the road (if that's the right road) is pretty snowy.

I also included pictures of Shavano, Tabeguache, and Princeton.

I plan to write a TR in the near future about this alternate route.

http://imgur.com/a/i6mJU 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 9/25/2016, By: graberz
Info: In regards to the road lots of traffic. FJ made it 12000+ and a wait for it... a Subaru Outback made it all the way to the top of the road. Several other stock 4x4 made it high as well as modified jeeps but I was heading down at this point so not sure how high they made it. The snow was melting off the road and was not a issue. .5 inch spotty snow on the ridge and summit push just made travel a little more careful. Round trip for me 7.5 hours. Beautiful day. Doesn't look like much snow hit the collegiate peaks but the peaks further west looked covered. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 8/27/2016, By: Sbenfield
Info: No snow or any of that to contend with. Summer conditions all the way up. The surrounding mountains look mostly snow free and I don't think they will cause any problems for anyone 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 8/8/2016, By: AlexeyD
Info: Hiked/ran from lower trailhead as a quick jaunt on a high-storm hazard day. A few notes:

1) Car-to-car time was about 6.5 hours (brisk walking up, running most of the road portions down, several breaks up to 15 mins). Don't be too put off by what looks like a lot of gain/distance: even without running, this route goes quickly due to the miles of easy walking along a road.

2) The shortcut to Point 13,800' mentioned in the route page does not seem to exist any more in terms of having any semblance to a trail. While it's certainly possible to climb that ridge directly, it's highly doubtful that this would save any time vs. taking the road.

3) On the final slopes to the summit, the right-hand variation mentioned in the route page still has a very small snowfield across the trail. If going this way, and going down off the trail to avoid the snow, be careful as the slope through this section is pretty loose and unstable. Otherwise, there seem to be numerous possible variations on this final section.

4) If driving the Baldwin Gulch Road, be aware that you may encounter considerable uphill traffic on your way back from a summit hike in the afternoon. This may be a problem as much of this road is too narrow for 2 vehicles to pass each other, and pullouts are relatively few and far between. This might be a consideration to start from the lower TH even if your vehicle can otherwise handle the road. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 7/5/2016, By: schira
Info: Great conditions. The road was very wet from all the rain and some places above tree line you could tell some small areas of the road were missing. I would estimate the stream crossing to be 17-20 inches as it was just up to my door seals on a Jeep Cherokee. The snow at 12,800 is passable by going around it as shown in my pictures. There is a well established road going to the left, however it is fairly steep and would require decent clearance. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/30/2016, By: quinnwolf
Info: Hiked all the way from the 162 road starting a little before 5am. The jeep roads are completely clear of snow and debris below the creek crossing. I have a CR-V and would not feel comfortable driving it, but there were Jeeps, Hummers, and trucks that made it up. The creek crossing is very wide right now, and I would guess about 2 feet deep. There is no problem dryly crossing the creek on foot. There is a large snowfield covering the road at about 12,600' (its right after the last switchback), so I cut that last switchback to avoid the snow, which was pretty easy and probably faster than following the road anyway. Rest of the route is 100% snow free. I summitted just after 8am. Dark clouds were coming in from the west. It rained lightly starting at about 9am and continued for the entire walk down to the car at 11:15. It was never heavy enough to get me very wet though. It kept raining (very hard at times) almost the entire drive back to Denver (through Leadville to I70). 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/29/2016, By: hollyhammons
Info: Completely summer conditions. There was one small patch of snow on the road getting close to 12,800' that jeeps couldn't get past, but you can easily hike around it. We road bikes to about 13,800' and then hiked the rest of the way to the summit. Started from the 2WD trailhead at 5 AM and got back to the car at 5 PM. The bikes definitely slowed us on the way up but it turned into a 20 mile day. Perfect weather. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/27/2016, By: thurs
Info: Summer conditions.

Short snow crossing on the road at 12,750ft -- not mandatory, but why not? However this is just large and deep enough to stop jeeps and ATVs from proceeding higher. Should be gone in a week or two. No other snow on the route.